


Endless Endgame

by Starry_Emerald173



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Soul Stone, Vormir, all our babies deserved better, fix it fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27655912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starry_Emerald173/pseuds/Starry_Emerald173
Summary: A collection of stand-alone chapters playing around with some 'what if' ideas and fix-it fiction after a recent Endgame rewatchHave a HC? An idea you want to see brought to life? An alternative to any part of the much-trashed, far-too-long movie?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	1. Soul Stones & Sacrifices

Nat is looking at him from the ground, tears in her eyes and he feels awful for beating her up but she just wouldn’t  _ stop. _

He’s spent his whole life surrounded by people who are just  _ everything _ and none of them think they’re worthy.

Of living.

Of redemption.

Of sacrifice.

But as he stands, shield in hand at the edge of the Soul Cliff of Vormir, he doesn’t have the words to say it all, to fix it. To explain - how to even begin to explain - how much they matter, and how amazing they are and how his faith has always,  _ always _ been in them. These people, these people who make him believe in what they do and why.

Steve Rogers can do this all day, but he can't do it without them.

So he lifts his chin, gives Nat a smile and promises, “It’ll be alright, Nat. It’ll be okay.”

Johann Schmidt - or the ghost of him, or whatever the fucking hells he is - is watching with damn near indescribable glee on his face as Steve takes the shield off his arm.

“Steve, don’t.” Nat’s choked sob nearly shatters his heart, but he doesn’t turn away from the cliff edge.

Tired.

He is so very tired.

When he started all this...he had no idea how far it would take him, the weight it would place on him. He was just a boy from Brooklyn who wanted to do  _ something _ to stop evil men from doing evil things, and maybe do some good with a life that was all-but guaranteed to be too short, with too much left undone.

He thinks of Bucky and winces. Steve Rogers was never supposed to outlive James Buchannon Barnes. And now, thanks to Erskine’s formula, he’s done this twice. Done this twice with Peggy too. The two oldest anchor points of his psyche, the no-longer beating halves of Steve Rogers’ heart, and both of them outside his chest and lost to him. Again.

But this...this is the end of the line, and all he can feel as Nat tries to regain her feet on legs that aren’t working quite right is an overwhelming sense of  _ relief _ .

It’s time.

Captain America’s fight is over.

And all he can think about is sketching in Central Park one warm summer day, Bucky’s head on his thigh as they talk and Bucky makes shapes out of clouds above them while he sketches with the pencil Bucky got him for his birthday. It's a simple memory, but it's one of the best he has, and it makes the decision easy.

Steve Rogers is done living through losing people.

“Making your peace, Captain?” Schmidt sneers.

“A soul for a soul stone?” He asks, because honestly he’s not sure it’ll work. After all of time and space and gods and shit that asthmatic, Irish catholic boy in Brooklyn couldn’t have possibly dreamed of...He’s still not sure that this will work. “That’s the deal?”

“I cannot lie, Captain.” The Red Skull’s eyes drift to Nat, who’s slowly standing. “Better decide soon, though. Your comrade seems quite intent on stopping you.”

“Rogers,” Nat grits through her teeth, bracing herself on a leg that has seen better days. “Don’t you dare, you self-sacrificing sonova-”

He gives her one last smile because  _ the irony _ of Natasha Romanov calling  _ him _ self-sacrificing... and then he turns, leans out over the abyss waiting below. “Language.” He chides with a wink.

And drops the shield over the cliff edge.

For a moment, his breath catches, watching it fall, tumbling end over end over end, bright and shining even through the veiled air of Vormir.

He sees it all - the lab and Erskine.

Senator Brandt and the Dancing Monkey days.

Howard and the unpainted shield, hours pouring over maps and slogging through mud.

That goddamn plane and Peg’s voice on the radio and the cold, cold water.

It all plays out in his head as he watches the symbol of Captain America fall.

The sound the vibranium makes as it hits the bottom is a death knell, and the shockwave of it rides up the cliff, up  _ fast, so fast _ before it slams into him, shoving him back from the cliff edge.

“Nooooo!” Schmidt howls into the wave of sound.

It rips through him, and oh  _ god _ it hurts like nothing he’s ever felt before -Not the serum, not the plane crash,  _ nothing. _ It’s going to tear him apart, he manages to think. It didn’t work, it didn’t  _ work _ .

And then suddenly he can breathe again, a shaky inhale into a chest that feels so much smaller suddenly, and he glances over at Nat, mouth is open and eyes are wide.

He glances down at his hands - small, so small - and feels the smile on his face as his mind grapples to adjust to a body he hasn't had in eighty-odd years now.

It  _ worked _ .

“A deal’s a deal.” He says to Schmidt, who is fuming, and damn if the sight of that Nazi bastard grinding his existential molars to dust isn’t the best damn thing he’s seen in the last five years. “A soul for a soul.”

“Steve…” Nat gasps as the world quakes, and suddenly they’re standing in a wet pool and her hand is clenched around the infinity stone they came here for. “Steve, what did you do?”

But there isn’t time to answer before the suits bring them home.

“Did we get them all?” Banner asks as they blink back into existence on the platform.

Rhodey’s lips are curving in a smile as he glances around. “Are you telling me this actually worked?”

It’s Tony who catches it first - the stillness of Nat next to him, and then blinks rapidly as he takes in how awkwardly the suit fits the body next to her. “Cap?”

“I’m good, Tony.” And he is, even as the others’ eyes snap to him too. “Had to trade something for the soul stone.”

“He gave up the shield.” 

He shakes his head. “The shield was just a symbol. Powerful one. Powerful enough, I guess.”

“What did you give up, Rogers?” Tony’s  _ worried _ for him.

And Steve Rogers, all one hundred and ten pounds of him, can only smile as he says, “Nothing I regret losing, Stark.”


	2. Craigslist Cap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look, I have no excuses for my under-caffienated, over-tumblr-ed brain. I saw this prompt about the end of endgame being a prank, and well....here we are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n: I'm actually terrifically excited to have Sam step into Cap's shoes, so don't hate me too much - the prompt was too fun

The craigslist ad had been oddly specific.

‘Wanted: white man, aged 70+ . Must bear striking resemblance to Paul Newman and be good at ad libbing. Playing prank on friend to make him think I traveled through time and am old now. Poker face necessary.’

Bill had thought ‘what the hell, why not?’ - it wasn’t like he had a ton going on in between visits from the grandkids, which were fewer and fewer as they had lives of their own now. And he cleaned up alright at poker night with the few buddies he had left.

He sure as hell hadn’t expected the poster to be Captain fucking America, pardon his french.

Who knew Cap was a prankster under all that American Pie PR bullshit?

Which was how Bill found himself sitting on a bench by the water, looking up at a man with truly unfortunate sideburns - god, he hated how some fashions just wouldn’t die - and offering him a kind, knowing type of smile.

Somewhere in the woods around them, Cap was filming this, and Bill could’ve sworn a moment ago that he’d heard a snicker from the grouping of trees over his shoulder.

“Wanna tell me about the girl?” The man asked.

What girl?

There was a girl?

Bill just barely kept his eyes from widening. Cap hadn’t mentioned a girl...

“No…" He said, realizing he'd paused a few seconds too long "I don't think I will.”

Yep, there was definitely a snicker from the trees behind him now.


End file.
